EXCLUSIVE: Youi launches industry-first rewards app

INSURANCE giant Youi has come up with a new currency designed to reward its thousands of loyal customers Australia-wide.

It's called YouiDollars and its part of a new YouiRewards program which aims to reward policyholders with savings on everything from daily purchases like food and clothing to life experiences.

The program, which is an industry first, will be officially launched today with the Youi app now available for download at the App Store or Google Play.

Youi's Customer Engagement Manager Lukas Temple and Communications Manager Trevor Devitt gave the Daily a sneak preview of the app and how Youi Dollars could make a real difference for customers and local businesses.

Customers will receive half their premium in the form of YouiDollars at a dollar for dollar value.

These can be used on an extensive list of retail, leisure, entertainment and dining offers from over 2,000 participating partners.

An extra bonus is as many as 24 local Sunshine Coast businesses are included in the list.

But the big name items, such as Events/Village Cinemas, Ticketek, Flight Centre and Hungry Jacks are also there.

It's kind of like Flybuys, except the YouiDollars can be exchanged for rewards instantaneously

And instead of having to save up thousands of points to buy something on Flybuys, a mere 10 YouiDollars can be immediately be exchanged for discounts.

The entire development, design and project roll out of the clever app was done at Youi's headquarters in Birtinya.

Youi CEO Danie Matthee was excited to see how YouiRewards had grown from a "fledgling idea" to an app, ready for launch.

Youi CEO Danie Matthee.Patrick Woods

"The delivery of a mobile rewards program that provides benefits to customers based on their insurance premiums is an industry first and something we are extremely proud of," he said.

"Youi puts huge emphasis on customer satisfaction and we developed YouiRewards because we saw the obvious benefits for our customers and the businesses who partnered with us."

"We get that our customers expect great service, competitive premiums and quality products, but we also want to reward our customers with significant savings on everyday purchases, cementing our brand promise "We Get You" even more."

Hot Pipis Mooloolaba owner Peter Nipperess said the program provided a great opportunity to "broaden our reach to Youi's customers."

Youi pleaded guilty to 15 charges of misleading customers in New Zealand in August and was fined $94,000.

At the time, Mr Matthee "unreservedly apologised" to customers and said the company had "speedily implemented changes to our business practices".